Katara's Greatest Fear: January Challenge
by avatarspiriaangkorra
Summary: Katara's greatest fear is being alone and by herself in this world. What happens when she faces her greatest fear as Zuko falls in his final Agni Kai against Azula? Zutara. What what! Rated K because there is no language or any bad themes.


"What? No lightning today?" Zuko asked Azula with slight smugness. "Afraid I'll redirect it?"

"Lightning?! I show you lightning!" Azula cackled evilly and started to bend the crackling blue electricity.

She held it to herself for a moment, thinking where to shoot it, when her eyes landing on me. We made eye contact and Zuko knew right away where it was headed.

She shot the lightning. Zuko took off running toward it.

"No!" he screamed.

The lightning hit him in the stomach. Half of it. The other half he redirected into the sky. He fell to the ground.

"Zuko!" I yelled, my voice catching.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

_**-A Month Earlier-**_

OoOoOoOoOoOo

"You may think you have everyone fooled by your "_transformation_," but you and I both know that you had trouble doing the right thing in the past. And if you make one step that makes me think you might try and hurt Aang, then you won't have to worry about your little destiny any longer," and with that, I walked out of Zuko's room.

I hated him. I hated him like my life was dependent on it. He betrayed me, and he lied to me. And I had trusted him.

I felt so stupid. I was Katara. I was the motherly figure of the group. But I turned out to be naïve started to trust a firebender. And not just any at that. The prince of the Fire Nation!

Sure, maybe he had saved our butts with Combustion Man, but it didn't mean we should let him join our group. After all he had done to hurt us. But that's the kind of person Aang is. He gives out second chances.

And maybe sometimes I do too. But Zuko had ruined that chance back in Ba Sing Se.

Lunch was going to be ready soon, so I headed down to the galley to finish preparing the meal.

I chopped the onion with fury. I was mad. Mad at Zuko. Mad at Toph. Mad at my brother. Mad at Aang. Mad at the world. And mad at myself too. But underneath it all, I was afraid. I had no idea what was going to happen. Good or bad.

I was afraid Zuko would hurt not only me again, but everyone else that I cared about. I was afraid we wouldn't win this war. I was afraid I'd never see my father again. I was afraid what would happen if we were all captured by the Fire Nation once and for all. If Zuko being here was one big trap for Ozai to make us all done for.

I was scared. And I felt alone inside, although I had my friends here. And being alone was my greates fear of all…

"Need some help?" Sokka asked as he came into the kitchen, startling me and making me jump.

I sighed. "Yeah. Sure."

He took the knife from my hand and started mincing where I had left off.

"Look Katara. This is just as weird to me as it is to you, but I'm just going along with what Aang says, ok?"

I sighed again. "Ok."

"Ok."

I jumped up and sat on the counter.

"So…?" Sokka said awkwardly, trying to make conversation with me.

"So…?"

He shrugged and kept cutting. "I miss dad…" he said a few beats later.

"I miss him too…"

"I'm sorry Katara."

"It isn't your fault Sokka."

"I know, but still. I feel bad. Dad's in probably in jail by now, we've teamed up with the son of our biggest enemy, and the invasion plan failed. And I'm sorry Katara."

He was done mincing as we were done talking. I helped him put the onions in the pot with the rice and put it over the fire.

The aroma of the cooking food soon filled the room. I heard my stomach rumble and Sokka's did too.

"Katara?" Sokka asked me.

"Mmm?"

"You may have to learn to forgive and forget."

"That's easy for you to say Sokka. You weren't there when he practically lied to my face in Ba Sing Se, where you?"

"No," he admitted quietly. "But I do know that he _is_ trying, no matter how much you think it's his façade."

"How do you know though Sokka? How do you know he just is a fantastic liar?"

"I just do. And I wish you could trust me Katara, just this once."

"Sokka, I _do_ trust you. But I don't want you to be naïve and fall for that like I did."

"Ok Katara. I'm done arguing about it. Choose to believe me or choose not to, it's your choice, but I promise you, deep down I think Zuko isn't that bad of a guy. And once you see that, I know you'll both come to an understanding and you'll forgive him."

"I don't want to forgive him."

I took the pot off its hook and set it on the counter, getting out bowls for us to eat out of while Sokka got out chopsticks. We worked in silence as we couldn't see the other person's side to the discussion.

I dished out the portions of the food and carried them two at a time to the table in the dining room in the room next door. Sokka followed me with two others. Soon, eight places were all set out.

"Katara, can we talk about this?" Sokka asked.

"There's nothing to talk about right now, but if you'd like to, would you please go tell everyone that lunch is ready?"

He solemnly nodded and left the room.

I hug my head as my lip quivered. Hot fresh tears fell down my face until I heard people coming. I waterbent the tears out of my eyes and off my face so they couldn't see.

They all came and sat down at the table, all except Teo that is, and began to eat in silence. Most of it was because of the failed invasion and the loss of loved ones, but a lot of it was also the fact that Zuko was here, and we didn't know what was safe to talk about.

I picked at my food, not feeling too particularly hungry, just like everyone else was.

"I'm sorry for asking such a stupid question, but may I be excused?" Zuko asked, not looking at anyone in particular, just blank space.

"Yeah, us too!" Teo said excitedly, motioning to The Duke and Haru as well.

"Yeah! And can Aang come with us to check out those tunnels?" The Duke asked.

"Katara?" Sokka asked.

I sighed, again, and glanced up to glare at Zuko and looked back down at my food. "Fine."

They all left their food on the table and I put what was left of theirs and mine back in the pot and put it in the pantry for tonight's dinner.

Toph and Sokka were still sitting at the table, talking to one another about who knows what. It was probably about me. And I didn't really care.

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_**-The Next Day-**_

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"I still don't like it," I crossed my arms as I said this to Toph and Sokka. We were all there to watch Aang's first day of training.

"You're just going to have to get over it Sugar Queen. Zuko's joined the group now. I gives us an advantage having a firebender. Especially the prince of the Fire Nation," Toph waved her hand as to dismiss my comment.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

Sokka sighed. "Zuko's part of the group Katara, if you don't like it, you don't have to be anywhere near him."

"But if he's practicing with Aang I need to be here to keep a close eye on them."

"What? You don't think a blind girl and Boomerang Boy can take him if he takes a step backwards?" Toph raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't say that."

"It was implied."

I groaned.

Sokka grabbed his apple and went to talk to the firebender and the firebender-in-training.

"He's not that bad of a person Sweetness," Toph said to me.

"And how would you know that?"

"I went to talk to him after dinner last night. I caught him talking to a picture of his uncle."

"You're blind Toph. How could you even see him doing that?"

"He told me."

"Oh."

"He also told me about his past, and all the bad things he's done. But he never mentioned any good things. Although, he did mention something he regretted."

"And what was that?"

"Hurting you."

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We all sat around the campfire that night. Zuko had told us not to wait for him for dinner, so we all dug in to the rice and onions.

"I lost my stuff," Zuko suddenly appeared with us.

"Don't look at me," Toph stuck her hands up in defense, "I didn't touch your stuff."

"I meant my firebending."

I laughed.

Everyone stared at me like I was crazy. "What? Oh the irony of you losing your firebending. Do you know how helpful it would've been to us if you would have lost your firebending a long time ago?"

Sokka shot me a look that said _we'll talk later_.

"I think I know why," Zuko said, completely going over my comment as if he had never heard it, although I saw some hurt in his face and knew he had. "I think it's because I switched sides. I'd been using all my anger and hatred as fuel for my firebending, and now that I'm good I don't have any fuel left."

"What does that mean?" Aang asked.

"It means that if I don't find another way to firebend, you're going to have to find a new teacher."

My eyes widened. There was no way we'd find another firebending teacher. Not one that didn't hate us anyway. And going after Jong-Jong was out of the question.

"Soooooooo all we have to do is make Zuko angry," Sokka grabbed Aang's staff and poked him everywhere on his body until Zuko yelled at him to cut it out. Sokka dropped the stick and sat down with slight fear.

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose. "Even if that is the reason, I don't want my drive to be on anger and hatred Sokka."

"You could always find the original source of firebending," Toph spoke up.

"Would that happen to be a volcano?" Sokka asked.

"I don't know. The original earthbenders where the badger-moles. They're blind, just like me. So I learned from them and used earthbending as an extention of my senses."

"So does Zuko have to jump into a volcano?"

"No. The original firebenders were the dragons. And the dragons died out a long time ago."

"There were dragons a hundred years ago," Aang pointed out.

"That was before hunting dragons for a title and for sport came around. And the people who learned from the dragons were the Sun Warriors."

"I've never heard of them."

"That's because they died out thousands of years ago."

"Oh."

"Maybe you could find the old Sun Warrior's villages and see if you could get anything out of that," Toph suggested.

"What? You see if you can get back your firebending by standing where they stood thousands of years ago?" Sokka asked.

"More or less. It's either that or you're going to have to find a new firebending teacher," Zuko looked at Aang.

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They left early the next morning. I didn't like the fact that it would just be Aang and Zuko alone on a trip to an ancient city in the middle of nowhere that was deserted and had been deserted for thousands of years. It sounded like the perfect murder location too.

"He'll be fine Katara," Sokka put his arm around me so I wouldn't worry. But I was still worried.

I walked to my room alone, trying to crunch in some quiet time while I was alone and didn't need to keep supervision around the clock like a hawk on a certain firebender.

I sat crossed legged on the floor and tried to do what Aang did when he was stressed out, meditate. I sat there in silence with my eyes closed for what seemed like forever and finally gave up. I looked out my window and saw the boys and Toph occupied with a game that they were playing, so I snuck to the next hallway over, the boys' hallway, and into Zuko's room.

Yes, I'll admit I was snooping, but I needed to make sure that he wasn't hiding anything from us.

I checked his dresser first. Some clothes he hadn't taken with him were in there so I took them out and found the picture Toph was talking about the other day. One was of a man whom I recognized as his uncle, the other was of a beautiful young women who had striking resemblances to Zuko. It had to have been his mother, the one who he had told me back in Ba Sing Se that had been taken away from him by the Fire Nation, just as my mother was.

I felt guilty and put the pictures back where they belonged, making sure they looked immaculate, and placing his clothing back in the drawer. I shut it and glanced around his room.

Everything seemed to be in order. His bed was made neatly, the corners of the bed sheet pulled tightly to the edge of the frame. There was nothing under the bed, and the room was clean.

This guy had nothing to hide. He was perfectly clean and I couldn't get any hard evidence on him to say he was a spy for his father.

Maybe he wasn't, but that didn't mean I trusted him.

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_**-The Day After-**_

They came back in late afternoon and told us teir tale of the Sun Warriors. Then they showed us a new form that they had learned called _The Dancing Dragon_. We had all laughed at that one.

It was now dinner time yet again, and my brother requested to speak with Zuko alone. He never had scolded me for the rude things I had said to Zuko the other day.

I became suspicious of their quiet talking out on the balcony. I had a right to. My sworn enemy was socializing with my brother.

I cleaned up dinner yet again this night and headed to my room to get ready for bed.

After I had changed into my night clothes, I pulled on an old robe I forgot that I had and curled up in bed with a book I had found in the library yesterday morning. I was cut short when I heard a knock on my door.

I opened it to find the person I least expected and definitely didn't want to see. Zuko.

"Hi Katara," he said.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I just came to say good night."

"Ok. Good night." I started to shut my bedroom door.

"Wait," he stopped it from closing with his arm and he opened up my door. "I also wanted to apologize to you. I'm sorry I lied to you, and betrayed you, and hurt you Katara. You seem to be the only one who hasn't really forgiven me. Aang has. Sokka's getting there. Even Toph has."

"And you seem to not care that your "apology" was a slap in the face, reminding me on what you had done to me in the past."

He sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Good night then Zuko."

"Good night Katara. I hope you rest well tonight."

I watched him walked down the hallway and turn left to go to his own room.

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_**-The Next Morning-**_

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I awoke the next morning to find neither my brother nor Zuko around anywhere.

I found Aang and Toph out on the same balcony the missing pair were talking at the previous night.

Toph handed me a note she and found.

I read it aloud.

"30 hot-squats!" Aang complained as a badger frog croaked.

I headed to the galley to make breakfast.

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They didn't come back until two days later.

"Sokka!" I said happily and embraced my brother. Then I saw my father get off the huge airship and hugged him too.

We were a family again.

I was also surprised to see Suki too. Three other people came out too that I didn't recognize. But I didn't care, I had both my brother and my father here with me, making me feel less alone and more complete.

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I woke the next morning to bombs exploding at the Western Air Temple. This was what I was afraid of when Zuko joined our group.

I looked up to see the ceiling starting to fall on top of me.

"Watch out!" I heard Zuko yell at me as his body slammed into my side, pushing me away from the rubble.

"What are you doing?" I asked as he was still on top of me.

"Saving you from getting crushed." He still didn't move.

"Well I'm not crushed, you can get off of me now." I crawled out from under him and waterbent all I could at the bombs to try to deflect them until Aang needed me so we could escape.

"I'll take that as a thank you," I heard Zuko say. Normally, I would have said thank you. But this was different because it was Zuko.

"Come on. We can escape through here," Toph said to us as she and Haru cleared a tunnel.

"What are you doing?" Aang asked Zuko.

"Go ahead. I'll hold them off," he dismissed us, "I think this is a family visit."

"Zuko no!" Aang yelled at him, trying to go after him, but Sokka and I pulled him back.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here!" Sokka told Aang as we helped try to get Appa through the tunnel.

"I can't get him to go in there," Aang shook his head, "Appa hates tunnels."

"Aang, there's no way we can all fly out of here," I pointed out to him.

"We have to try."

"We need to split up," Sokka said, taking the lead, "Take the tunnel and get to the stolen airship," he told Dad and the three people.

"NO!" I intervined, "The Fire Nation can't separate our family again!"

"We'll be ok," Dad placed his hands on my shoulders, "It's not forever."

I hugged him and joined my friends on Appa.

"I can clear that away and we can get out through there," Toph pointed to some earth blockage.

"Uh… There's an awful lot of fire in that general direction," Suki said.

"We'll get through," Aang said with determination.

She cleared it and we used the blockage as a shield getting throught most of the fire until we were almost through. Then I used my waterbending to deflect the fire.

Zuko and Azula both fell off the airship they were battling on. We all watched with awe and horror. We made it just in time for me to pull Zuko into Appa's saddle.

"She's…not going to make it…" Zuko watched his sister fall. She used her hair piece to stay on the rocks. "Of course she did."

We kept flying, in complete silence. Suki was snuggled up against my brother, Aang was at the reigns, Toph was picking bother her feet and her nose, and Zuko and I were both sitting in the back of it all, stuck next to each other.

"I want to thank you, by the way, Katara for saving my life," Zuko said to me, gratefulness audible.

"Don't mention it."

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"Wow. Camping. It really feels like old times again, doesn't it?" Aang asked that night at dinner, sitting around our campfire.

"If you really want it to feel like old times, I could chase you around," Zuko smirked, joking.

Everyone laughed.

"Haha," I muttered to myself.

"To Zuko," Sokka started his toast, "Who knew that after scouring the globe to capture us that today he'd be our hero."

"Hear hear!" I heard Toph above the rest say gleefully.

"I'm touched, I really don't deserve this," Zuko made eye contact with the group.

"No kidding," I said, louder than I really intended to. I got up and left.

"What's with her?" I heard my brother ask.

"I wish I knew," I could hear Zuko get up to follow me.

I stood there on the slight cliff, looking at the inky black water churn on the rocks.

"What is it with you?" Zuko asked behind me, "Everyone else seems to trust me now-"

"Oh, everyone seems to trust you now? I was the first person to trust you, remember? Back in Ba Sing Se?" I pointed behind me, not really caring if that was the direction the fallen Earth Kingdom city was or not.

"What can I do to fix it?"

"How about you reconquer Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King?! I know; you could bring my mother back!" I threw my shoulder forcefully against his and walked away.

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I walked out of my tent the next morning and saw my least favorite person sitting there waiting for me.

"You look terrible," I simply stated to him as I got a brush out of my bag and began combing my hair.

"Sokka told me the story about our mother. I know who did it and I know how to find him."

I stopped mid-brush and turned to face him. I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you planning?"

"I think we should go find the man who killed your mother."

I curtly nodded and had him follow me to Aang.

"I need to borrow Appa," I told him once we got there.

"Why? Is it your turn for a field trip with Zuko?" I could tell Aang was kidding, but I remained serious.

"Yes. It is."

"Oh. What's going on?"

"We're going to find the man who took my mother away from me."

"Sokka told me the story of what happened. I know who did it, and I know how to find him." Zuko said the same thing he had told me, making me realize he had probably been rehearsing.

"And what exactly do you think this will accomplish?" Aang inquired.

I scoffed. "I knew you wouldn't understand." I began to walk away.

"Wait! Stop! I _do_ understand. You're feeling unbelievable pain and rage. How do you think I felt about the sandbenders when they stole Appa? How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?"

"She needs this Aang," Zuko backed me up, "This is about getting closure, and justice."

"I don't think so. I think it's about getting revenge."

"Fine. Maybe it is," I admitted, "Maybe it's what I need. Maybe it's what he _deserves_."

"Katara, you sound like Jet."

"It's not the same. Jet attacked the innocent. This man…he's a monster."

"Katara," my brother interjected, "She was my mother too, but I think Aang is right."

"Then you didn't love her the way I did!"

"Katara!"

"The monks used to say that revenge was like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you're being poisoned yourself," Aang tried to put his wisdom to good use.

"That's cute," Zuko rolled his eyes, "but this isn't air temple preschool. This is the real world."

"Now that I know he's out there. Now that I know we could find him," I started in a quieter, but still dangerous voice, "I feel like I have no choice."

"But Katara, you _do_ have a choice. Forgiveness," Aang was trying to talk sense into me and I knew it.

"That's the same as doing nothing," Zuko argued.

"It's easy to do nothing, but it's hard to forgive."

"It's not just hard. It's impossible," I walked away for real that time.

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I put the rest of my hair up into a ponytail while Zuko finished loading some things we would need on our trip.

"So you were just going to take Appa anyway?" Aang asked us angrily.

"Yes," I turned my eyes sternly toward him.

"That's ok. Because I forgive you. Does that give you any ideas?"

"Don't try to stop us."

"I wasn't planning to. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man."

I nodded.

"But when you do, please don't choose revenge. Let your anger out and then let it go. Forgive him.

"Ok, we'll be sure to do that Guru Goody-Goody," Zuko rolled his eyes.

"Thanks for understanding Aang," I nodded once more to him as Zuko and I left.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

We had already gone to the Southern Raiders head command tower and one of their ships. There was no sign of Yan Rah, the man who killed my mother.

Zuko and I headed to the village the current naval captain had told us where Yan Rah lived. We finally found him and followed him until he was alone on a road.

I confronted him and told him my feelings, but took Aang's advice and spared him, leaving him in the middle of the poor dirt road in the pouring rain.

Zuko and I neither one spoke going back to the campsite, or going to Ember Island, where we would be staying for a while.

But I did choose to forgive him after all.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

_**-After the Play-**_

I sighed again as I stood by myself in the middle of the night on the porch of Fire Lord Ozai's old beach house. I was so confused over my feelings.

I didn't know if I liked Aang the way he liked me. We kissed at the invasion, but I didn't know why my emotions were getting the better of me. And he kissed me again tonight at the play.

I also didn't know how I had felt about Zuko. After watching him for so long with Aang and the rest of the group, watching him interact with everyone equally, and being absolutely flattered when he had countlessly apologized to me, I was confused over how my feelings were directed to him.

"Couldn't sleep?" Zuko's voice asked form behind me.

"No."

"Me neither."

"It's a beautiful night."

"It is."

"I don't know if I ever thanked you."

"For what?"

"Helping me with my mother's killer."

"Of course Katara."

I shivered a little.

"Are you cold?"

"A little," I admitted.

I could see out of the corner of my eye that he hadn't brought anything with him as he awkwardly looked at himself to see what he could warm me up with.

"I know this will be weird, but trust me."

And suddenly, his arms were around me. Using his firebending, he set off heat to my body to raise the temperature.

I found myself snuggling into him. Then I felt him tense and then relax and we stood there looking up at the stars together.

"Katara?" he asked me quietly.

I looked up at him and realized how close our faces were. "Yeah?" I whispered.

"Don't…don't move. Ok?"

I nodded as he leaned in closer and pressed his lips to mine.

I eagerly kissed him back and knew instantly exactly how my feelings for him were.

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_**-Present Time/Day-**_

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All this flashed through my head in an instant as I watched him hit the ground. We had secretly started dating and spent many late nights up talking and kissing.

I hurried and faced Azula so I could heal him.

I didn't want to face the rest of the world without him. I wasn't going to face it alone. I toughened up and got the job done, knowing that my fear _wasn't_ going to come true. Not anytime soon.

"Thank you Katara," he smiled at me weakly.

"I think I should be the one thanking you," I let a small tear fall as I helped him to his feet.

He wiped my crying eyes and pulled me into him. I lifted my head up and stood on my tiptoes to kiss him.

I felt relief inside. Relief I had made my fear disappear, and relief that I knew the war was finally over as Sozin's Comet disappeared from the night sky.

**OoOoOoOoOoOo**

**4716 words, not including AN**

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**-Spiri**


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